


A 'Peanuts' comic strip love story

by honorablejackass



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Jack Frost is a Little Shit, M/M, Making it up As I Go Along, Male Slash, My First AO3 Post, Original Character(s), Post-Movie(s), Slow To Update, awkward character, shy character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-21
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-05-02 16:00:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5254466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honorablejackass/pseuds/honorablejackass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A teenager with crippling insecurities, pension for injuries and all around bad luck somehow manages to not only befriend a pack of smart aleck ten-year-olds but a three hundred year old winter spirit. What is a Jinx to do with a mass hallucination that has seemingly trapped the minds of his beloved little cousin and her friends. And why do they want to play matchmaker with him and their imaginary friend? Do they think he's really that desperate?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

 

Manny huffed in frustration as he was once again signed out of his playstation account in the middle of a game. What was the point of having a snowday if the power kept going out in his room? The teenager considered leaving the house but every sneeze that passed and cough that ripped through his throat made him reconsider. Plus, the doctor and his aunt told him to keep his cast dry.

Thinking of the bright orange cast on his right forearm made Manny cringe in phantom pain. Sure it wasn’t his first experience having a broken bone but this one was by far the most painful and most— interesting story up to date. Professional bike riding was definitely out of the question for potential projects.

You see, all of Manny’s sophomore class was working on a huge project that was due at the end of the year; a twenty percent project, meaning that twenty percent of their work and school time would be strictly devoted to this one project. It could be about anything you wanted as long as it was appropriate. At first, Manny was excited about the whole thing, that is, before he was required to choose his own subject. That was the most daunting task. There were so many options he had yet none of them seemed quite right. It also didn’t help that Manny had the worst luck when it came to pretty much anything.

He was like the real life version of Charlie Brown; only with more hair and less catchphrases. Simple tasks like doing the laundry and watching his younger cousin always ended in such a mess. Even making a lousy bowl of cereal escaped him. With Manny’s horrendous history of bad luck, his mother and aunt have become well accustomed to rushing him to the ER for some reason or another. Last tuesday was the most recent when he had broken his arm trying to jump over a shallow pond with his bike.

To make matters worse, Manny had gotten a cold from the pond’s freezing temperatures. Thankfully his cold was on it’s last legs so Manny expected to be better within the next few days.

Manny sighed as he watched the television screen try to load despite the random power outages. After a few minutes of not getting anywhere, the auburn haired teen stood clumsily to his feet and shut the console off. He could finish off the rest of those pesky zombies some other day. The teenager glanced out the frosted window and spotted his cousin, Pippa, playing with a little blond boy with huge glasses, Morty or something like that.

The two ten year olds were quickly joined by two— four more kids the same age. Those pipsqueaks sure did regroup fast. Manny couldn’t help but feel a little envious of his little cousin. She was well like in their little town of Burgess by children her age and adults alike. It was no wonder why she had such a big group of loyal friends by her side.

Manny was of a likeable sort as well. He was a nice kid though a bit shy. It was his clumsiness and all around tendency to screw up that caused people to keep their distance. He wasn’t good at sports, he was average at school, and he had no notable talents to speak of. Manny just sorta blended into the background. It was only when Manny was home did he get any sort of positive attention. He adored his family, even little Pippa who often chose to hang out with her friends rather than do something with him.

Manny watched his cousin laugh at something a girl with a tutu said before gently closing the curtains. He was glad Pippa didn’t turn out to be a jinx like him.

“Emmanuel!” He heard his mother call from downstairs. Manny shut his eyes and pretended not to have heard her. “Emmanuel, ven aquí por favor.” The teen sighed in agitation before doing wat he was told. He knew when his mother or aunt started to speak in spanish that they meant business.

“Si, Si. Ya voy,” He replied as he cautiously walked out of his room and carefully trudged down the stairs. Manny hated the stairs with every fiber of his being. He knew that they would eventually cause his death one day. The teen sighed in relief when he finally made it to the bottom step with no injury. One might think he was being over dramatic it wouldn’t be the first time Manny had tripped down a flight of stairs. His aunt had jokingly told him that she was going to install a stair lift chair for his brithday. Manny had secretly really wished she had not been joking on the offer.

“Ah, Manu,” His mother said with a small smile when she finally caught sight of him. Manny smiled a little at the name his mother called him by. ‘Manu,’ That meant she wasn’t angry at him. “You have been in your room all day, hijo. You need to go outside, play with your friends.”

“Ama,” Manny whined.

“No. I will not hear it, Manny. The amount of time you stay in your room is not healthy.Look at Pippa, we have to fight her to get back inside,” Manny’s mom considered her son standing in front of her. Her boy always had her worried. With his pale skin, thin structure, dark circles under his eyes, and tendency to not be so light on his feet startled her. He was always so quiet that she and her sister, Jenni, always took care to keep a special eye out for him. “How about I make you a deal?”

Manny’s head lifted a little at his mother’s words. Her deals were always the best.

“You take these snacks I made to Pippa and her friends and I’ll make your favorite for dinner today, Caldo de res. How does that sound?” Manny pretended to consider her offer for a moment all while jumping in excitement in the inside.

“Well, I guess that seems fair,” Manny said with a small smirk.

“Good. Now put on your jacket. I don’t want you to get sick again.”  
“Ok,” Manny said as he ran over to the coat rack and threw on his favorite green jacket. He then ran over to the kitchen island and grabbed the small cooler full of goodies before running over to his mother and giving her a quick peck on the cheek. “Love you, mama,” Manny called as he briskly walked out the kitchen door and into the brisk winter air.

———

Jack laughed uncontrollably at the sight of Jamie and Claude running right into each other. Both boys looked completely disoriented by their little collison. It was strangely refreshing to watch such normal interactions from children these days. Being a guardian was a lot of work, hardly any room for fun. Jack had actually began to miss the days when he had no responsibilities to uphold but he wouldn’t change anything for the world. He finally got a few believers. Though the numbers were small, Jack had no doubt he’d gain more one day.

“Oh no,” he heard someone call. Jack turned to look at Monty who wore a strange expression on his face.

“What?” He asked the bespectacled boy.

“Manny is coming,” the boy said, his mitten covered hand pointing—er gesturing to the park’s entrance. Jack looked over, confused as to why a stumbling teenager would garner such reactions. The winter spirit winced a little at the clumsiness ‘Manny’ displayed. Even from the distance, Jack could tell that the teen was having trouble trekking through the icy landscape.

“Not very coordinated, is he?” Jack said with a sly smirk. The winter spirit leaned nonchalantly on his staff. It was almost sad watching the teenager slip around like that.

“Not at all,” Jamie said as he too watched, only his expression was more concerned. “Should we go help him?”

“Nah,” Jack said with a smirk. “I got a better idea.” With that the winter spirit conjured a perfectly round snowball and took aim to the pitiful teenager.

“Wait, Jack!” Pippa tried but it was too late.

With a loud smack followed by a dull thud, the children and immortal winter spirit winced as they watched the teenager fall roughly to the snow covered ground and the object, which they identified as a cooler, fall on top of him.

“Jack,” Pippa, Caleb, and Jamie groand as they took off towards the fallen teen.

“What?” Jack chuckled. “It was all in good fun,” He said as he leisurely floated after them. A small part of JAck actually felt bad for what he did but it was too late to take it back now.  
“Ugh,” the teen groand as he pushed himself up with a little help from the pack of ten-year-olds. “That sucked.”

“I’m soooo sorry, Manny,” Jamie cried as he pulled the blue cooler off the teen. “I wasn’t aiming for you, I swear!” He lied.

Manny’s cheeks flushed in embarrassment and tried to smile at the small boy but even he could tell that it probably looked strained. He could definitely feel a bruise forming on his back.

“Ah, don’t w-worry about it, kid. Accidents happen. And trust me. I should know,” Manny said as he carefully stood up, his grimace of pain going mostly unnoticed. “Hey, Pippa,” He said as the little girl ran over and pulled him into a tight hug.

“What are you doing outside?” She said as she stepped back and adjusted her ever present white hat. “I thought you were sick.”

“I am,” Jack flinched a little in guilt at that. “But I thought I c-could use a little air. My mom asked me to bring these to you guys, thought you all might have gone hungry.” Cheers erupted through the crowd of little people as they rifled through the contents of the cooler. The teen chuckled a little at their eagerness. Jack grinned as well, though it went unnoticed by the auburn haired teen.

“W-well I’ll just leave you all to it,” Manny said as he raised his his hand to wave goodbye to the kids. The teen then froze, staring at his arm in what looked like horror as his jacket sleeve dripped from melted snow. “Oh crap,” He whispered in dismay.

“What happened?” Pippa asked hesitantly lowering her half eaten PB&J. The green eyed teen pulled his jacket sleeve up to his elbow and groaned at the site of his sodden cast. If Jack hadn’t already felt guilty before, he sure did now.


	2. Stalking Charlie

Luckily the cast wasn’t as bad off as Manny had first thought. After hurriedly saying his goodbyes to the kids, Manny all but ran towards the house and somehow managed to make it to the upstairs bathroom he shared with Pippa undetected. He spent quite some time blasting his arm with a hair dryer full blast. 

 

The teenager laughed a little at the unexpected luck. There was no need for another trip to his doctor. While the older lady was very nice, Manny didn’t want to explain to her that a ten-year-old managed to K.O him with a snowball. The fact that it happened was embarrassing enough. 

 

Manny carefully put the bright pink hair dryer away to its rightful place and slowly made his way to his room. He glanced at the L.E.D clock on the bed stand and huffed realizing it would be several hours before dinner. He was really looking forward to eating the stew his mother promised. Manny groaned as the feeling of boredom began to set in. There was nothing new to do and he honestly did not want to start up his playstation again as he knew the shotty wi-fi would just irritate him. 

 

The teenaged absentmindedly kicked a dirty shirt under his bed and considered cleaning his room. It wasn’t really dirty. Just a few pieces of clothing on the floor and an unmade bed. His mother and aunt had raised him to be a clean kid. However they must have skipped over Pippa as he was sure her closet harbored some sort of bacterial fungus unknown to man. Manny cringed at the thought of his little cousin’s room. While he didn’t mind getting down and dirty he couldn’t imagine himself bring that filth home with him. 

 

Manny shook his head and sighed before grabbing a comic book and laying on his bed. War Machine it was then. He had read this issue a few times. It wasn’t one of his favorites but Manny felt that his knowledge on it was lacking. Ever since he was a kid, Manny had a sort of obsession over super heroes. He dreamed of being a hero one day and conquering his excessive clumsiness. He wanted to be able to lift cars without trouble, fire lasers out of eyes, fly above the clouds, or even just teleport from room to room. He wanted to feel special. 

 

However, Manny knew he could never be a hero. He wasn’t athletic, his public speaking skills were near nonexistent, and his ability to ruin things for just existing was a super power on its own. Captain Screw-up. He was going to get that on a t-shirt one day.

 

Though a superhero he couldn’t be, Manny was destined to for something great. Only, he did not know it just yet.         

* * *

He was a creep. Watching the teeneger through the window set a new low for Jack but for the life of him, he couldn’t look away. He felt guilty and he had no idea how to make it up to the kid. He couldn’t even apologize. The kid, Manny, couldn’t see him. No surprise there; He was a teenager. He probably didn’t even believe in North or the others either. 

 

The thought made something in Jack’s stomach clench uncomfortably. Manny had no need to believe in the guardians anymore and sooner or later, Jamie and the others wouldn’t either. Kid’s grew up; It was inevitable. Jack hated to think that one day he would come visit his band of believers only to find teenagers like Manny in their place. Non-believers.

 

It wasn’t like he had his own holiday like North and Bunny. He wasn’t as well known as Tooth and Sandy. He was just… Jack. The guys who had snowball fights and brought kids sniffles. However, with the kids that believed in him, Jack felt like so much more. 

 

The winter spirit sighed as he glanced at the teen once more. The orange cast seemed to mock him as it stood in stark contrast to the rest of the teen.  _ You done messed up _ it seemed to say. Jack’s nose wrinkled in distaste and nearly blew the damn thing a raspberry but thought better of it. 

 

Looking closely, Jack noticed that the cast was pure orange. Not a lick of writing in sight. The immortal teen tilted his head in confusion as he tried to peer closer and look for the writing. In every cast he seen on clumsy kids like Manny, there had always seemed to be squiggles of names and get well wishes written in bright colors. Though Manny’s cast was blank. No names, crudely drawn cartoons, or designs. Just… Orange. 

 

And who picks orange anyways. It was such an obnoxious color. It's not an angry color or a sad color or a happy color. It was just… there. Like a traffic cone. The cast itself wasn’t as annoyingly bright though. Dark orange but still orange. Blue would have been much more appealing to the eyes, well at least to Jack’s opinion. 

 

Orange suited him though. Reddish brown hair, like Pippa’s, and… was that blue? 

 

Jack leaned as close as he could against the window pane in order to correctly see the unknowing boy’s eyes. He was to far to tell exactly but close enough to see that Manny had lighter eyes than that of his younger cousin. Jack huffed as his icy breath caused the mirror to fog over. He raised his arm in order to wipe it away but a someone yelled, startling Jack.

 

“Hey, Jack!” Pippa called. “What are you doing?” Jack clutched his staff against his chest, his breaths coming out harshly as a glared slightly at the girl. Pippa either didn’t notice or didn’t care as she grinned up at him innocently. 

 

“Hey, kid.”

 

“What were you doing at Manu’s window?” The girl asked as she raised a condescending eyebrow. “Jack Frost, were you spying on my cousin?”

 

“W-what, no!” Jack yelped as he quickly flew down to the girl’s level.

 

“That's a bit creepy,” Pippa added as she began to walk inside, her eyes never leaving Jack’s. “I'm going to buy him a set of curtains for Christmas this year,” she muttered.

 

“It's not what you think!” Jack tried but all he received in turn was a mocking giggle and the sound of a door shutting closed. 

“Pippa?” Jack called quietly. When no answer was heated, the winter spirit flew back up to Manny’s window and peered inside. 

 

Nothing had changed during the little stunt. The teen was still reading the comic on his bed as before. Jack sighed in relief and smiled a little knowing he had got away with his creeper moment. He was about to knock on the window in order to get the teens attention when all of the sudden, the door to Manny’s room burst open. 

 

Their at the doorway stood little Pippa. Her eyes glittered in mischief as she glanced at Jack before turning to the surprised looking Manny. Jack couldn't tell what she was saying but the embarrassment he felt when the little girl ran over and shut the blinds was overwhelming. 

 

There was no doubt in his mind that this would get back to Bunny somehow. 

 

Jack could feel himself blushing blue as he slowly lowered himself to the ground. He didn’t move for a few moments. The awkwardness of the situation making him stare at the house in bewilderment. Since when did ten-year-olds get so sassy? Jack cleared his throat as he casually walked backwards, away from the house before flying the heck away from there. He would never be able to look at Pippa in the eyes again. He was sure of it. 

 

Jack took his time getting to his pond. As he flew, Jack couldn’t help but wonder what color the other teen’s eyes were. They were a light color, at least that’s what it looked like from Jack’s position outside. The thought of the teen having blue eyes made Jack giddy for some reason. Blue was his color. Though he found he wouldn’t mind seeing it on the other teen. 

 

The guardian of fun landed gracefully on a bank of snow. His thoughts circling on Manny. He wanted to meet the boy. Apologize, maybe even befriend him. But he knew it would be impossible. Manny couldn’t see him, thus he didn’t believe. Jack groaned as he flopped backwards into the soft snow. His curiosity was killing him. He wanted, no, needed to make the other see him. Only Jack didn’t know how. Jack sat up at a sudden realization. 

 

Making one teenager believe in him would have been impossible, that is, without the help of seven already believing children. 

 

_ Tomorrow,  _ Jack thought to himself.  _ Starting tomorrow I’ll get him to believe in me.  _

 


	3. SORRY NOT AN UPDATE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SORRY TO DO THIS

I totally forgot this thing existed. It's been a while since I even seen the movie to be honest. I don't think i'll be able to continue this so if anyone is willing to take this off my hands, its yours! Just make sure to comment or PM me that you want it so I can take it down... and follow your story XD 

I'm even willing to Beta read if you need it :) 

Sorry again!


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